My story began on April 1st 1970 (April Fool’s Day). That’s the day I raised my right hand and swore to defend the Constitution and uphold the laws of the United States.

I have quite a number of fond memories of Air Force basic training. The first was my experience with a new razor issued to me.

It was the first morning living in the barracks (a new 1000 man dorm with chow hall and training rooms). I had showered and lathered up and proceeded to shave. After I shaved I checked my face, it still had as much stubble as it had before I shaved so I lathered up again, shaved and had the same result. Once more I went thru the process with the same result again.

Totally confused, I examined the razor closely and discovered it had a plastic guard over the blade, removing it made all the difference. You see I am one of seven kids (five of us one year after another, I’m the fifth).

The few times I shaved before this was with a razor one of my older brothers or sisters had left in the bathroom, the only bathroom in a house with nine people.

A second memory is of the confidence course. We had to run it twice during our six weeks. I really enjoyed it except for the mess it made of my spit shined combat boots. It took me hours to get them back to anywhere near what they were before.

Both times running the course I was first in my Flight of almost fifty airmen. I have always been very competitive, in fact I ran a 4:20 mile during P.T.

Even after all this exercise I gained 15 pounds in the six weeks at Lackland Air Force Base when most of my fellow airmen lost weight.